Clueless Church Meetings?

By David Hobbs

I am dismayed at the mentality prevalent in many American churches. For all the talk about a personal relationship with Jesus, how many of our actions actually stand in contradiction to that! Alas, how deep go the traditions of the fathers and this American idea of “doing church services.” Do we really come together to meet with Jesus or do we merely come together to have a church service? They are not the same thing!

Let’s consider singing as an example. Say your church sings the old gospel songs and you have to pick some out for the service. You find some songs you like, but which one do you start with? Does it make a difference? If you’re only a song leader and your idea is to have a lively service, you start with some fast, upbeat ones, then transition into a few more worshipful ones and call it good.  Or you could do it like one song leader I know: no matter what 4 songs she picks out, she always sings them in the order they appear in the hymnal.

But what if you are a worship leader wanting to draw the people into an encounter with Jesus? What then? The Bible is clear about God’s preferred pattern: “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise,” from the Psalms.

It’s like this: When we come together at church, Jesus also comes and is “peering in the window” at us. (Because we meet in Jesus’ name, He is always there, according to His word.) Therefore our first duty is to acknowledge Him, welcome Him, and give Him what He loves: praise and adoration. Some people have been going to church their whole lives and still don’t have a clue that God is a Being who loves to be praised and worshipped. He loves it so much that Psalm 22 says He inhabits the praises of His people!

When we welcome Him, acknowledge Him, thank and praise Him, He enters through that “window” into our midst. Then we sense His presence and know we have connected with heaven. Now we can really have church!

But way too many song leaders seem to be oblivious to this reality and start with any old song, most of which are aimed at the believers instead of to Jesus: songs like “When the Roll is Called up Yonder,” or “I’ve Got a Home in Glory.” Even petition songs like my favorite “Just a Closer Walk with Thee” are inappropriate for starting a service. Let’s first welcome Jesus into our midst with a song like “Praise Him! Praise Him”), then warm Him and feed Him with praise and worship with a song like “Jesus is the Sweetest Name I Know” before we start asking Him for things. Otherwise it would be like your wife meeting you at the door as you’re coming home from a hard day’s work with a plunger in her hand telling you the toilet’s plugged up! How about a hug and a kiss and a “welcome home” first?

Sound like making a mountain out of a molehill? Recently I was at a service that began by singing “Fill My Cup Lord.” We sang other songs in similar vein; Jesus was never welcomed, invited in, thanked, honored or praised—just asked for things and treated with familiarity like our pet cat. What a way to treat the One who died that we might live! Jesus never showed up; there was a noticeable lack of anointing; then we went into prayer with similar results. At the end, I imagine the dead meeting was blamed on inclement weather keeping many people home.

Singing “Fill my cup Lord; I lift it up Lord; come and quench this thirsting in my soul” right off the bat before the anointing comes is a lie anyway. We are not even aware of a thirsting for God until we are breathed on by the Holy Spirit—He has to awaken our thirsting before we can sing about it!

This is not rocket science. This should be Christianity at a very basic level. Jesus didn’t die so we could walk on streets of gold, have a home in glory-land and be reunited with predeceased loved ones. He died so we could be with Him where He is (John 17:24), and that includes here on earth now, as well as in heaven in the hereafter. But often His attempts to meet with us and be with us are stymied, like they were at that meeting, by our cluelessness.

The whole focus and purpose of our meetings should be on meeting Jesus through the Holy Spirit. After that we can proceed according as He leads. Until that happens we dare not push ahead with “business as usual.” Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Sadly too many churches are very busy “doing nothing.”

Paul said to the churchgoers in Corinth (1 Cor. 15:34), “there are some [of you] who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.” That is still true in the churches of our day. Going through the motions of doing church meetings doesn’t cut it.